A torrent of Titi - 26th December

We spent last night on the rocks up at Rangatira trig, with amazing views of the surrounding islands, and Woolshed bush and Front Landing, our usual home, at out feet. By the time we got up there it was about 9 pm and as we’d done already some serious walking that day, we were all quite tired. So we made ourselves comfortable in our sleeping bags wearing piles of clothes and even more clothes within easy reach just in case it got cold in the night.

The Skuas eventually got used to us being there and started swooping less frequently. The sun set, in a blaze of colour, behind the North summit. As it was getting dark, I closed my eyes and went almost off to sleep…..until there was a quiet “Whoosh” in the air about 5 metres above me. And another one. Then more and more whooshes and as I opened my eyes I saw hundreds of Titi (also known as muttonbird) flying laps around the rock that we were sleeping on. They are incredible flyers! They are so fast, maneuvering past each other at a nail-biting speed. It was just after dusk and these are birds on a mission. They have been out at sea all day fishing and now it’s time to get themselves safely back to their burrows and feed their chicks before having a few hours sleep and leaving as dawn breaks the next day.

As with so many of the birds that we see here on Rangatira, the Titi nest on the ground so are very vulnerable to introduced predators. Thankfully, yet again, Rangatira is pest free so the Titi are able to breed. The young were a traditional food source for both the Chathams Moriori and still are for the Stewart Island Maori. But are otherwise they are a protected species. I don’t know the collective noun for Titi, but it was a real torrent that evening. We watched the passing parade as it gently got darker and darker and darker.

The next time I woke to see the stars in the sky clearer than ever before (there are absolutely no lights anywhere near), and the next to hear the dawn chorus of the forest birds in the bush way below us. I slept through not only the Titi going back out to sea, but Brigitta having to move her mattress in the middle of the night as a young broad-billed prion fledgling decided to cuddle next to her. Lucky for the prion fledgling our presence on the rock allowed it to live another day.

A broad-billed prion chick - not the one with Brigitta

During a normal night the resident Skuas would have pounced on it and eaten it for breakfast.

I saw the sunrise, and by 8 am we were all awake enough to pack up our bags and mattresses and stumble back down the hill to the hut for a huge pot of coffee and breakfast.